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Charlemagne42 Ballot for 2018 Week 2

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Sept. 4, 2018, 11:48 a.m.

Overall Rationale: Submitted before AP Poll released. ... ... ... ... ... Human poll while my computer algorithm eats data. Around the end of OOC matchups I'll switch to a hybrid poll, adjusting my algorithm's results to yield something that makes more sense. At that time I'll start including the algorithm's scores for each team to give a better idea of teams' relative positions. By week 5-6 I hope to use the algorithm alone to generate my rankings. ... ... ... ... ... My overall philosophy is that every game matters, including the ones that haven't been played yet. My algorithm attempts to account for a team's remaining schedule, putting a higher value on strong opponents. It's fair to say it's a mostly strength-of-record based system, but with a moderate forward-looking component. ... ... ... ... ... For now, it's looking forward at conference matchups, and tends to group one conference all together. There's also an outsized effect based on number of games played: Hawai'i comes in a clear first in the algorithm this week, just because they're the only 2-0 team when some teams haven't played a single game yet.

Rank Team Reason
1 Auburn Tigers Auburn had the best win of the week, no further qualifications needed.
2 Alabama Crimson Tide Louisville is now a fine red mist. But Auburn gets the nod because Louisville was already on the brink of crumbling.
3 Ohio State Buckeyes No Urban necessary. The Buckeyes won on talent alone. TCU will be a test.
4 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Statement win against Michigan, but both teams still have major questions. ND can't afford to falter.
5 Oklahoma Sooners Wow. A defense so bad it's a meme held the C-USA's champion offense to just 14 points in garbage time. That game was only close at kickoff. If the Sooners stay the course, it'll be playoffs again for them.
6 Wisconsin Badgers Moving up to vacate spaces left by losing teams. Strong win, but against a weak team. Need more data.
7 Clemson Tigers Stop playing FCS teams as your opener. Have some self respect and at least play an atrocious G5 team.
8 Georgia Bulldogs You too. Bad Dawg. Do something interesting.
9 West Virginia Mountaineers Okay, so Tennessee may be bad. But they're still P5 and WVU still beat them by four scores.
10 LSU Tigers Incredible showing from LSU against a Miami team that *might* have been just a bit overrated. Nevertheless, LSU will round out my top 10 as the fourth-ranked SEC team.
11 Virginia Tech Hokies Was FSU overrated based on recruiting and expectations? Maybe. Am I over-ranking VT based on beating FSU? Maybe. If they belong here, they'll earn it.
12 Washington Huskies The Huskies played a very strong Auburn team very close. With adjustments, they can get back on track. Still the top Pac-12 team for now, which is kind of disappointing for the Stanfords and USCs of the world.
13 TCU Horned Frogs Never overlook a Gary Patterson defense. Even though they "ain't played nobody" yet, they still earn this spot over the others below on the strength of their defense alone.
14 Stanford Cardinal After a slow start, the Cardinal jumped ahead of SDSU and finished strong. Bryce Love is making another excellent campaign for second in the Heisman voting.
15 USC Trojans The Pac-12 is top heavy this year, just like most years. USC is an unknown quantity, and beating UNLV didn't do very much to make them known.
16 Michigan State Spartans Oof. Almost losing to Utah State at home is not a good look.
17 Northwestern Wildcats But beating Purdue at their place is a very good look. Northwestern has a brutal schedule, but getting through mostly unscathed will mean the season is a great success.
18 Hawai'i Rainbow Warriors Apparently beating CSU week 0 wasn't a fluke? Hawai'i pulled it off again to bring down a strong Navy team. The algorithm has them at a distinct #1 right now.
19 Boston College Eagles Boston College will be sneaky good. Massachusetts put up silly numbers on Duquesne, which means they're at least an average FBS team. Boston College then proceeded to put silly numbers up on Massachusetts.
20 Penn State Nittany Lions Speaking of bad looks, how about needing an interception in overtime to avoid Michigan counter-memes about losing to App State? The pieces are available for Penn State, they just need to actually assemble them into a football team.
21 Cincinnati Bearcats The Bearcats notched a statement win over UCLA. Are they really good? Is UCLA really bad? We'll see.
22 Michigan Wolverines Gameday in South Bend was too much for Harbaugh and the Fighting Khaki Mustelids. If they can't beat Notre Dame, how can they expect to beat Penn State, Michigan State, and Ohio State?
23 Boise State Broncos Boise begins their gentle climb upwards through the rankings. At this rate, they'll be top dogs... er, horses? ... if they manage to go undefeated.
24 Appalachian State Mountaineers Taking Penn State to overtime in Happy Valley is no mean feat. An impressive follow-through will allow the Mountaineers to reach the summit.
25 Maryland Terrapins Maryland is BACK, FOLKS! Rounding out the top 25 is the 7th (!) B1G team, and the 5th from the East division alone. Will a winner emerge? Will the division resort to cannibalism? I suppose that's why we watch the games.

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